NOTEBOOK: Michigan guard Zack Novak continues to fight through shooting struggles

Michigan sophomore Zack Novak falls down on Michigan State sophomore Austin Thornton while looking for a rebound during the second half of Michigan's 57-56 loss on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at Crisler Arena.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

This season, though, hasn’t made more than four in a game all year - and that was when he attempted nine at Indiana on New Year’s Eve and seven two weeks ago at Purdue.

“It’s just something you’ve got to work through,” Novak said.

That might be the most frustrating part. Novak has made the three-pointers in practice, yet in games he’s only made 28.3 percent of his outside shots.

He has made more than a third of his attempts in only six games this year, most recently a 2 of 5 effort against Iowa.

Novak has improved in every other area this year except for three-point shooting.

“A lot of times in practice, it’s going down,” Novak said. “It’s feeling good in games. But it doesn’t go down.”

Harris not ready to decide

Michigan coach John Beilein spoke yesterday with his junior guard, Manny Harris, who had said Tuesday after Michigan’s loss to Northwestern that he’d be returning for his senior year.

Except Beilein said that wasn’t quite what Harris meant.

“I wouldn’t say right now that he was ready to talk about that,” Beilein said. “He was talking more from the big picture and not from a personal decision about what people have to do. I wouldn’t say he was ready to make a statement that day. It shouldn’t even be thinking about those things right now and he isn’t. But that happens in the course of conversations.”

Grady won’t be on the bench

Don’t expect to see Michigan’s newest basketball player, Kelvin Grady, on the Wolverines’ bench Saturday or for many games.

Grady must balance his allotted sports hours between football and basketball, Beilein sees Grady sitting on the bench as a waste of three hours of potential time he can help out in practice. Not that Beilein agrees with it.

But it’s all part of being NCAA compliant.

“This is the other side of the story of kids that want to work with their coaches, want to play two sports - he’s doing well academically - that they are not allowed to do,” Beilein said. “With us coaches say, if there’s a great piano player downtown and he wants to work extra and maybe learn the oboe, he’s not allowed to if it’s the college basketball environment.”

Grady practiced with Michigan on Friday.

This and that

The 1984-85 Michigan team that won the Big Ten title will be honored at halftime Saturday. Among those returning for the festivities are former NBA guard Gary Grant. … Beilein is 0-6 against Wisconsin at Michigan. In all, the Wolverines have lost 9 of their last 10 games against the Badgers, with the lone win being a 85-76 win on Jan. 28, 2006 in Ann Arbor.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.